Colleen Meyers

Education Specialist

• Campus Phone: 612-625-3312
• Email: meyer002@umn.edu
• Office: University Office Plaza Suite 400, Room 412

Education

• B.A. University of Minnesota, Spanish (major) English (minor)
• M.A. University of Minnesota, Teaching English as a Second Language
• Universidad Complutense de Madrid, certificate in Spanish

Teaching Interests

My educational background is in foreign languages and teaching English as a second language. I am interested specifically in teaching pronunciation to non-native speakers of English, having published several textbooks and audio-video materials in that area. I currently teach GRAD 5105 – Practicum in University Teaching for Nonnative English Speakers and have taught Grad 5102—Preparation for University Teaching for Nonnative English Speakers. I am also currently teaching the ESL 8010 course in Phonetics and Phonology at Hamline University. In 2007 I was a visiting Senior Fulbright scholar at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, where I conducted teacher training workshops on the teaching of pronunciation.

Other areas of teaching interests include:

• Classroom interaction
• Classroom research
• Non-verbal communication

Development Interests

With my colleague, Dr. Elena Stetsenko, I am currently co-facilitating a series of workshops entitled “Fine-Tune Your Accent” for international faculty at the University. In addition, I provide individual consultations on language, teaching and classroom management issues through the Center.

Other areas of personalized consultation interests include:

• Signature pedagogies (Engineering)
• Career development (mock interviews, CVs, cover letters)

Research Interests

Recently I was a member of a research team in collaboration with the MA-TESL program which looked at Korean intonation patterns in speakers of North American English. Our team presented at the TESL/Applied Linguistics: Conference on Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference in Ames, Iowa (2009).

I am also an active member of the Evidence-Based Pedagogy Group. I am particularly interested in Classroom Research.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Gorsuch, G., Meyers, C., and Pickering, L. Effective Communication for International Teaching Assistants. Waveland Press: 2010.
• Meyers, C. and Holt, S. Pronunciation for Success: Teacher Training Tape.  Aspen Productions: 1998.
• Smith, J., Meyers, C., and Burkhalter, A. Communicate: Classroom Communication Strategies for International TAs. Prentice Hall Regents: 1992.
• Keynote speaker and teacher-trainer presenter at the 2006 Manitoba Conference on ESL in Winnipeg, Canada. May, 2006.
• Invited speaker for “ITA Professionals as Materials Writers” panel at the 2008 TESOL Conference in New York. ITA/Materials Writers Interest Sections.
• Invited speaker for “ITA Pronunciation Update” panel for Academic Session of the ITA Interest Section at the 2006 TESOL Conference in Tampa, Florida.
• Invited speaker, Linguistics Colloquium.  “Non-verbal Communication as a Correlate to Intonation.” SUNY Stonybrook. Long Island, New York. 2000.